Dental Assistant Enters Plea In 'Peeping Tom' Incidents With Teens, Co-Workers

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — An Owings Mills man has pleaded guilty to eight counts of illegal computer access and four counts related to visual surveillance for his involvement in a peeping Tom incident involving several women and a young girl.

On Dec. 9, 2023, a 16-year-old girl reported that while she was in a dressing room at a clothing store in The Mall in Columbia, she saw a man recording her under the door. After investigating, police identified Delano Draine, 43, as a possible suspect and later in the month, seized various evidence through search warrants.

An analysis of Draine’s digital devices and additional search warrants showed numerous upskirt and dressing room videos of at least 11 unidentified female victims at various locations in Howard County and in the region. Detectives also discovered that while working as a dental assistant, Draine captured the cell phone passcodes of women – both patients and coworkers – by recording the victims using their phones. Then, when he had access to their phones, he would go through their media galleries and record their compromising videos and photos on his phone. Detectives identified 36 victims from the dental office. Detectives believe Draine may have been participating in a Telegram chat group with individuals engaged in similar conduct, prosecutors showed.

During the investigation, police discovered that Draine received several "pinhole camera" videos from other group members and was keeping them for his personal consumption. Detectives were able to determine that none of the photos Draine distributed during his participation in the group were of the identified victims.